Day 19: Lyon
Welcome
Yesterday we drove to Lyon and played our first ever gig on a boat.
Our host made us a continental breakfast which included bread with preserves, chocolate granola, and some sort of puffed wheat that tasted like Nutri-Grain.
We hit the road around eleven and Liz and Tristan made short work of the drive to Lyon. Points go to Tristan for successfully navigating this clusterfluck:
Our show last night was at 'Sonic', a venue set aboard a moored riverboat on the river Saône. It was a great room to play in once you got used to the slight starboard list the vessel sat on. We were treated to a wonderful home-cooked meal on the deck of the boat, and had plenty of opportunity to take in the beautifully over-engineered structure that is my bridge of the day.
The 'Viaduc de la quarantine' is a 93m steel truss design that was completed in 1932, and is the final crossing of the Paris-Lyon railway. The Germans dynamited the bridge when they left in 1944 but it proved ineffective and it was returned to service with twenty days.
There were so many good bridges yesterday both in Lyon and on the drive from Paris that it was hard to make the call. Here are a couple of the runners-up that I managed to get photos of.
Pont de l'aire du Jura. A cable-stayed bridge with a main span of 60m. Built in 1998 it crosses the A39 motorway near Arlay.
Railway bridge of the Mulatière. A 190m cantilever bridge completed in 1916, crosses the river Saône.
The show was quite wild with an energetic audience that carried their enthusiasm right to the signing desk, where some of us managed to sign six different items for one guy.
Beth of the day goes to Tristan for getting a toot from a passing train he waved at. You're a superstar Tristan! 🚅🚅